


The sins of the father (shall be visited on the son)

by PerplexinglyParadoxialPerson



Series: The making of a (post Age of Ultron) Avengers family [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Dehumanization, F/M, Flashbacks, Gen, Medical Experimentation, Medical Torture, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Panic Attacks, Podfic Welcome, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Transformative Works Welcome, typical winter soldier warnings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:21:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21699964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerplexinglyParadoxialPerson/pseuds/PerplexinglyParadoxialPerson
Summary: Tony finds out just how similar he and Bucky are.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: The making of a (post Age of Ultron) Avengers family [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1486748
Comments: 2
Kudos: 70





	The sins of the father (shall be visited on the son)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work to involve semi-graphic anything! I’m not sure if this is enough warnings, and I’m not sure on the rating, so please be careful of your triggers, and tell me if something needs to be tagged that isn’t, or the rating needs to be changed. 
> 
> I’ve never had any experience with panic attacks, PTSD, etc. I’ve also never written Tony much, or watched the Iron Man movies. Please tell me if I got anything majorly wrong!
> 
> I’ve just been staring at this story for a while without changing anything, so I decided to post it. There are some weird events and transitions in here!

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.” Luke 6:32 NIV

Tony was working on the computer in his workshop when Friday announced that Steve was at the door.

“Open the door Fri,” he said.

Steve came in with a USB stick in his hand and said, “hey Tony, I have the files.”

“Put it on the desk,” Tony said as he tweaked the blueprint he was working on.

Steve placed the USB on the computer desk, but began to talk. “Tony, I just want to say some things before I go, first of all, the files are... terrible to read, most of the files were found as paper copy’s in Hydra bases. Very few of them were censored in any way and... they did some really terrible things to Bucky. I figured that you should know. Anyway, the second thing needs a big explanation first.”

Tony spun in his chair so he was facing Steve, who looked even stiffer than normal.

“Go on Cap,” he said lightly, “is it juicy gossip, maybe you need advice for seducing a girl that caught your eye?”

“No it isn’t” Steve said, looking grim and standing up straighter somehow. “It started when me and Natasha were just finding out that Hydra still existed. We went to an important location, found a secret passageway that led us to a large underground room of computers. When we turned the computers on, we found out that there was an AI of a sort down there, a copy of the worst of the Hydra scientists from the war, Armin Zola. He was the one that revealed that Hydra was alive and well in SHIELD. He... he gave examples of things that Hydra did, including... well he said that Hydra changed history and... and he showed us a picture of a newspaper article announcing your parents death.”

“What,” Tony said faintly, “there’s... there’s no way.”

“It’s very possible,” Steve said quietly. “I didn’t tell you because I wasn’t sure if it would help or hurt you, we weren’t very close, and we weren’t even sure-“

“Get out.” Tony said sharply.

“What?” Steve said.

“Get out!” Tony shouted, throwing the wrench on his desk at Steve, who ducked and ran out of the door.

How dare Steve not tell him, just keeping it to himself like that! He threw his container of pens at the wall, scattering pens everywhere, then grabbed a pile of papers and threw it too.

Then Friday interrupted, “Sir, your heart rate is well above acceptable levels, please calm down. Also, please do not throw the USB, with the amount of clutter in here, it is highly unlikely that you would not find it for a very long time.”

He refocused, Hydra had done this, Hydra had killed his parents, and Hydra had also had Barnes.

“Put finding Hydra bases on top priority,” he said to Friday, “I could use a little revenge.”

He sat on his chair and opened up the info, it was organized into four files, 1945-1954, 1954-1963, 1963-1991 1991-present.

The first file was mostly files with titles of experiments, the second only had two files, titled training and memory suppressing. The third and fourth files were similar, mostly mission reports by the looks of them.

It seemed dull as anything, so he opened the 1945-1954 file, and selected a random file. The title of the file was endurance testing, and it had multiple files that all looked like lab reports. The one he opened was a scan of a typewritten document, written in Russian with a few English annotations at the beginning, mostly the name of the experiment and the method. He recognized Natasha’s hand from when she had been posing as his assistant. He did know some Russian, enough to make basic conversation and ask what kind of science someone did. Now it could be useful, with a generous application of Friday’s translation software.

He quickly got an idea of what Hydra had done to Barnes. For this experiment they had made him run on a treadmill, and when he had slowed down too much, they would shock him until he began to run faster again.

He scrolled to the bottom of the pages, passing records of every time that Barnes had been shocked. The paper ended with a record of Barnes fainting, and the shocks “not having any effect.” Then at the end there was a record of, “subject given IV of nutrients and returned to cell.”

In the file was multiple reports of the same experiment with a different date on each one. They had obviously repeated the experiment to have the average, and if he had been given nutrients and rest in between each experiment, then... they had needed him healthy to know his top performance levels. As sick as it was, it was very systemic, very well organized, and very scientific.

He exited the file and began to scroll through the parent file. The other files had names like cold tolerance testing, pain tolerance testing, disease resistance testing (rheumatic fever), poison resistance testing (strychnine), speed testing, strength testing, lung capacity testing...

He caught his breath, remembering the horrible pain of drowning on dry land, lungs burning, the taste and feel of the sand in the water... No. It was highly unlikely that they had water boarded Barnes, and besides, he was perfectly fine. He was sitting on a chair in front of a computer in his workshop in the tower, the Ten Rings was gone forever, he wasn’t in any danger.

Once his hands stopped shaking enough for him to use the mouse again, he exited the file and entered the file called 1954-1963, opening up the file called training. There were multiple files in it, most of them dated much later in the time period except for the first one. It was called arm replacement and he opened one of the files.

It horrified him. They had been planning on cutting off what remained of his arm so the prosthetic would fit, he hadn’t had his elbow, but everything above that that had remained was to be cut off to just below his shoulder. They had no plans to use anesthesia, no painkillers, nothing. They “would be a waste due to an enhanced metabolism.” They had planned to just strap him down, grab a saw, and cut his arm off while he was awake.

He suppressed the nausea and pressed on. He found diagrams of the metal arm, detailed, but obviously not by the original maker of the arm. They had been figuring out how it worked, and looked vaguely familiar. Then on the next page was an account of the surgery.

He had Friday translate the words “subject passed out multiple times during surgery, but stayed out after the seventh hour of surgery. Did not awaken until after the surgery was over.”

He remembered the pain, the horrible aching burn of his chest... This wasn’t real, it wasn’t. He fell down with a horrible crash.

“Pepper” he croaked, a horrible metal taste on his tongue. He felt the dryness in the air, and his stomach burned. He turned to the side and threw up, stomach lurching, the awful scorching ache in his chest spiking.

“Tony” he heard, “Tony, it’s all right, your safe.”

The calm voice drifted into a calming, muted humming. Then there was a metal something resting on his shoulder, and some beeping sounds.

The soft voice came back into focus, “you’re safe Tony, you’re in your workshop, you’re the only person there, Dum-E’s right beside you.”

The voice sounded like Pepper, but... Pepper hadn’t been in the cave with him, there had only been him, Yinsen, and the Ten Rings. That meant that... he wasn’t in the cave! The beeping and the metal on his shoulder must be Dum-E!

Another beep came from beside him, and he felt a soft fabric being draped over him. It smelled horrible, like stale sweat and oil, but it was familiar. This was the blanket that he kept on the lab couch, he had Dum-E by his side, and Pepper’s voice in his ears.

But... when had Pepper gotten here? He had been reading the files that Steve had given him, and she had been in... maybe in Russia somewhere?

“Pep?” He managed to croak. “Wha-?”

“Jar-Friday called me” she said as he opened his eyes to a video call with Pepper displayed on the computer screen. “And I’m glad that she did, that was a really bad one, what triggered it?”

Pepper looked put together, but a little frazzled, so he sat up, pulling the blanket around his shoulders and scooting away from where he had thrown up.

“I... you know how I was keeping you away from the tower?”

“Yeah,” she said, “so your finally going to tell me why you did it? I do have a feeling though, that this is going to be a long story. Do you want to go to your room so you can be more comfortable first?”

“Nah” Tony said, “I don’t think I’ll be able to walk very far, and besides... I don’t want to not be able to see you.”

“If your sure,” Pepper said, “but you should probably at least get to the couch.”

“Sure” Tony said, and dragged himself to the couch and sat down.

“So you know how I told you that Steve’s old friend had been captured by Hydra and made into a super soldier assassin?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“Well, he came to the tower. He was acting all nice, but Friday doesn’t know the security protocols very well yet, so... I didn’t want to risk you, I have my suits but you... don’t have anything to protect you.”

Pepper sighed, but said, “I can understand why you did it, but you should have let me make my own decision. You know that I can protect myself to a certain extent, and usually make less reckless threat assessments than you.”

“Yeah,” Tony said, “I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”

“I forgive you” Pepper said softly, “but what does this have to do with your... flashback?”

“Oh yeah,” Tony said. “So Steve figured out that I was worried about the threat that he posed so... he gave me information about what they did to him. Scanned copies of files, and... they operated on him while he was awake. He passed out and... when he woke up... he had a metal arm attached to him.”

The ache in his chest sparked again, but with Pepper talking to him, the panic receded quickly.

“Do you need me to come back?” Pepper asked.

“That... that would be nice,” Tony said. “But... did I interrupt something?”

“I had a few hours of sleep left,” she said, “but I can get some sleep on the plane.”

“Thank you,” he croaked, “I... I don’t know what I’d do without you Pep.”

“Well your company probably would have failed,” Pepper said, “but you know that already.”

“Yeah” he said, “can... can you stay on the line? Wait, never mind, that’s stupid.”

“It isn’t stupid,” Pepper said, “I’ll call you with no visuals while I get to the plane, but once I’m on it I’ll make another video call.” She looked at him softly, “I promise.”

“Thank you Pepper,” he said, “see you soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just so you know, at this point Steve doesn’t know for sure that Bucky killed Tony’s parents, but even if he did, I doubt he would say anything. For one, the last time one of Tony’s friends got hurt,(Happy) Tony went on the news impulsively to give whoever did it his address so he could fight them, not considering anything but revenge. For another, Steve knows that even though Bruce was off the grid, someone managed to find him, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to consider Tony as the one who did it. If Steve knew that Tony could find Bucky long before his anger wore off, no wonder he didn’t tell Tony about the possibility!
> 
> Also it’s unlikely that any information on the Winter Soldier would be in the SHIELD data dump. For one if an agent got attacked by the Winter Soldier, (Natasha) it’s logical that the first thing they would do is check the SHIELD files on him. For another, Natasha said that she had to get her info on the Winter Soldier from someone in Kiev. The most secure way of storing info on a “ghost” would be paper files spread between different bases.
> 
> My title came from how connected Howard is to the Winter Soldier, he was friends with Bucky, worked in the science department of SHIELD (probably) with Zola in some capacity, (something insinuated in the story), and was killed by him. Then Tony got some of the same trauma that Bucky has. It just fit so well!
> 
> By now it’s clear that this was mostly written to move the story along and put in some of my own headcanons. The notes are probably longer than the story at this point!
> 
> As usual if you have questions, constructive criticism, ideas, or tags I forgot, please comment!
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
